The Return
by XX-Samantha-XX
Summary: So I thought Hallie's return was a bit odd/suspicious in ep 1x20 so here is the result of my muse wanting to see her return affect Casey in a different way. AU. Will involve Hurt!Casey to some degree. Will anyone see anything wrong in time so save our Hero? Read and find out. TeamFic.
1. Not So Welcome Surprise

_Characters are not mine...no matter how much i beg the producers etc for them haha._

_So originally i thought Hallie's return wasn't a good thing and was a bit suspicious considering be returned just as someone connected to the Voight case was found dead so i had this idea and still not completely sure that Voight isn't involved in what happened at the clinic but i guess we will have to wait for that one haha enjoy and please lemme know what you all think about this story._

_This is AU alot...set after ep 20, before the rest of the drama in the following episodes. _

**The Return**

Casey couldn't keep the smile off his face at seeing Hallie walk through the elegant wooden door Dawson had picked out for the bar, oh he knew that he probably shouldn't, that she probably hadn't changed her mind on the baby front but he was still happy to see her. At the end of the day they were still friends, they may not want the same things out of a relationship but they could still talk and meet up and well, other things.

And hey. maybe she had changed her mind. Well he could only hope anyway. There wasn't anything wrong with grabbing a coffee and catching up. Right?

He didn't quite know what to do other than to smile when they arrived at the cafe, he was just so surprised to see her. They, drunk their coffee in silence but it wasn't as awkward as he'd expected it to be considering how it had ended the last time, it was as if they were just continuing on from where they had left off.

He hated that he wasn't sure about all this, Hallie always made things more complicated than he needed right now, and with what they had found at the end of their shift, it looked like it was going to get more complicated.

"You okay, Matt?" Hallie looked worriedly at him.

He smiled at her, "I'm fine.", he knew it was his standard answer but he didn't see any point in worrying her this time when he didn't know what it meant and knew that Voight was still behind bars.

She gave him a look as if to say she didn't believe him but then that was normal as well. He smiled again and they chatted about what they had been doing over the past few months

After and few more minutes of chatting, Matt began to feel groggy and a little nauseous, maybe he had been working too hard recently and was coming down with something. Or maybe he'd just drunk too much coffee and his body needed to sleep rather than be kept awake.

The silence only became awkward when they'd finished their drinks and didn't know what to do next.

"So..."

"Shall..."

They spoke at the same time, they looked at each other and smiled and Casey indicated to Hallie that she should continue first.

"I should probably let you get some rest."

Thinking about it, he was starting to feel the past few days catch up to him, maybe, if he rain-checked, and got some rest, he'd feel up to catching a movie with her later in the day as long as she wasn't back on shifts yet.

He was about to ask her as they stood up but he stumbled slightly and grabbed the table for support, suddenly dizzy and feeling rather warm, maybe he really was coming down with something, he sighed, that's just what he needed.

"You sure you're okay to drive, Matt?"

He sat down again and looked up at her, but felt a little disconnected from his surroundings; but the feeling went as quick as it came so he stood up tall, pretending that everything was fine because it was. Right?

"Come on, Matt, let me take you home."

And he found himself agreeing through the sheer exhaustion that had settled deep into his bones.

Even though the ride wasn't that long to his house, he found that he struggled to keep his eyes open.

But then he also found that the journey was taking a bit longer than normal, and attempted to open his heavy eyelids. His vision was fading in and out as if there was something dragging him down into unconscious oblivion.

Something that wasn't down to him being just tired.

Thoughts were muddling together in his mind, and he couldn't find one single thought to concentrate on. Something was wrong, he'd been given something.

Maybe... it was Voight, but then he was still in prison...but then again...they had just found Curtis dead...and it wouldn't take too much for someone to slip something into a drink...damn!

What about Hallie?

"Hallie?" His voice was thin and strained past the numbness of sleep that was creeping through his body.

Maybe. she'd been drugged as well, putting her in danger driving.

His head moved sluggishly round to look at her.

Except, she looked fine.

She even had a smile on her face, but it had an odd sadness to it.

Almost as if she was regretting what she was doing.

However, before Casey fell unconscious in the passenger seat of Hallie's car, speeding away from his house. He got a really bad feeling in his gut about everything which wasn't helped by her making a call to someone unknown; and just before he was pulled into oblivion, said something that turned his blood cold.

"I've got him."

And that was the last this Matt Casey heard.

**TBC**

_Okay, I know this is AU and thinking that maybe Hallie wouldn't do something like this, but what if she was forced...but hopefully people will give it a chance. Lemme know what you think ! Thanks!_


	2. Deny, Deny, Deny

_Well i have internet again after moving house woop woop, sorry about the last update, have been busy starting my final placement on a palliative care ward last week and had to get used to waking up at stupid o clock in the morning again haha, these next weeks should be easier as i have longer shifts but less days there woo! _

_Would like to thank Callisto-HK for reading this and getting it back really quick, you're a star. _

_Enjoy and lemme know what you think!_

**Chapter 2:Deny Deny Deny**

Okay, so, Matt Casey waking up exhausted and cold, wasn't a completely alien situation to him since his job sometime took a lot out of him physically and sometimes his heating would pack in when it got frozen over.

But this was different in two very big almost glaring ways.

One, that it wasn't the usual kind of exhausted that you'd get running into a blazing fire and hauling people out of buildings, though he couldn't say that wasn't there either. It was the kind of drugged, stuff your head with massive amounts cotton wool, type of exhausted you got when you found yourself unfortunately waking up in hospital having had surgery and still on strong painkillers.

Two, the cold wasn't because his heating had decided to stop working again or had frozen over. More it was the chilling breeze that was coming from the open door on the other side of the room that he was currently in and the fact that all he had on was a t-shirt and a pair of faded jeans that he'd left work in. No shirt, jacket or even shoes or socks which was odd.

Flexing his muscles he realised just how odd a situation he was in.

Apart from the stone floor his feet were planted to being freezing cold and making a good attempt at turning his toes into ice cubes, his wrists and ankles were tied firmly with rough rope to the arms and legs of an almost hospital hard type of wooden chair. If he moved even a little the rope would tear a layer of skin off his wrists and ankles, he'd found that out just a second ago when he was flexing and cursed at the tightness of the rope.

His mind was muddled still from whatever he had been given, his short term memory was like a train wreck, bits of what had happened over the last few hours everywhere and not everything making sense. But what he did remember, was that he hadn't been on his own.

Hallie had been in the car with him and he would never forgive himself if something happened to her because of trouble that he'd been mixed up in.

He shouted her name a few times, his anxiety increasing as it received no response.

Where was she?

If he was honest it seemed like he was trapped in a nightmare, everything seemed disconnected and sluggish, even his movements since he had awoken. I mean, he hadn't really seen Hallie smile as he had lost consciousness...had he?

No, he couldn't believe that, that was too irrational. Hallie wouldn't do that...wouldn't be involved in something like this. Maybe he was just getting his memories mixed up.

But then where was she?

And surely if he had been taken captive then they wouldn't leave the door to his escape wide open like they had.

But then, he thought about it a little and wondered if it was meant to be like that to mess with him, making him think that he was so close to escaping but never could.

That hope was futile.

An odd sense of hopelessness was creeping up through his frozen toes, right through to his inner being, increasing his heart rate. Wispy tendrils of fear clung to his skin but he wouldn't let them in because Matthew Casey didn't do scared and weak. He would fight until he couldn't anymore.

Those wispy tendrils took hold stronger, turning into thick ivy vines when he realised just who this could have been when the memory of Curtis fluttered passed his vision.

Voight.

That and nobody would miss him for at least a day or two, when they were next due on shift.

Voight could do a lot of damage in that time, even in prison, the man was probably well connected.

Shaking his head, he tried to clear his foggy vision, whatever he had been given had been strong and didn't agree with him as the nausea he'd been feeling after waking up had increased ten-fold and he felt rather sweaty even though the temperature in the room itself was low.

He cursed himself for not looking after himself properly since Hallie had left again, she'd always warned him about his eating habits and running himself into the ground with work.

The memory of Hallie calling someone and say that she had him invaded his muddled mind. Surely she wouldn't have lead him to this.

But then maybe, he'd lead her to this, trying to force her into something he knew she didn't want. Maybe he'd driven her away to that other country where she'd been vulnerable to the horrible side of people there and it was all his fault for putting her in that position.

Guilt was a familiar friend of his and had been for a long time, and while the rational part of his mind told him that it wasn't his fault that everything had happened, guilt was hardly a rational emotion. Maybe if he was a better person he wouldn't push people away or into to doing something horrible. Maybe, if he'd been a better son all those years ago he wouldn't have...

A loud banging noise in the distance startled him unusually, what in the hell had he been given that had him on edge?

But nothing else happened for the minute after, or even a few minutes after, Casey half expected for footsteps to follow the noise that could have easily been a door being slammed opened or shut, but nothing.

And it was starting to creep him out, he'd faced many hairy situation before, I mean it came with the job, he'd even been trapped in rooms where the entrance had been cut off by falling building or fire.

That he could handle without a problem, but this, this was new even for him.

Then there was another loud bang, and this time it was followed by complete darkness, the dim light swinging on a thin cord that had vaguely illuminated his way out and partially down a dank corridor was now dark.

Leaving the drugs still running around his system and the darkness to mess further with his tired, foggy mind.

Just as his vision was adjusting he thought he felt the air move beside him, causing his tightly bound limbs to scrape against the harsh rope as he tried to move to see what it was.

But this also was futile, he couldn't see a thing so he strained his ears, usung the senses he still had to his advantage.

And he realised, albeit a little late, that the presence that he thought had just moved past him was standing right next to him now.

All he could hear was the breathing of the other person and the sound of his own heart rate beating faster before his head was snapped to the side when a punch to the jaw had him seeing stars and shadows in the darkness that was all encompassing.

He'd been just about to spit out the taste of his own coppery blood when a dirty rag was forced into his mouth, much to his protest and detriment as he received a few more punches to his unprotected mid section, and securely fastened with duct tape.

He was really in trouble here.

The presence still hadn't spoken a word.

And he couldn't see anything through the stifling darkness.

All he could do was hope that Hallie didn't have anything like this happening to her as his mind was still muddled from the drugs and was still allowing him to deny the fact that she had been the last person he had been with and he'd remembered the phone call

He struggled to loosen to ropes but it was no use, anytime he tried now, he would receive a punch to some unprotected area of his body.

The guilt was back, screaming at him that he should have tried harder earlier and filling is head of images of Hallie being in a similar situation.

Not allowing him to see the truth because it would be too hard to handle.

All the compartmentalising ability in the world wouldn't stretch that far, not in his world where Hallie was or had been the one good thing in his life and until he saw evidence to the contrary; then denial was safer.

He felt the eyes of the other presence in the room staring at him and heard laughter, it wasn't a nice sound, not at all.

It was laughing at the turmoil it could see he was in.

Almost as if it knew exactly what he was thinking.

And there was something very wrong about that.

There were only a few people that knew how he thought.

And that didn't leave many options.

It was someone he knew, or that knew how he reacted to this kind of situation.

But it's not like he could ask any questions when he saw who it was.

All he could do was sit there, eyes widened in horror at the person starting back at him through torchlight, making their face look menacing.

His mind was a hive of questions, none with an answer forthcoming.

And for the first time since he'd woken up, the gravity of the situation thickened the vines of fear piercing his skin right through to the core of his being.

He may not make it out of this alive.

Leaving his team without its leader and letting them all down, and it would be completely and totally his fault.

**TBC**

_Okay so sometimes i leave it on cliffies like this...thats warning enough right? So who is this person giving Casey a hard time? Read further to find out ! Please!_


	3. Nightmarish Reality

_Okay, so I'm apologising again for the late update, forgot how much shift work takes out of you.. that and i had two interviews for staff nurse jobs which I have been training for for the last three years which has been an interesting journey to say the least...aannnd i got offered one of the jobs at a busy city hospital which will start in september/october! anyway on with the story...let see what trouble my muse has in mind for Matt this time._

_Please Enjoy and review !_

**Chapter 3 - Nightmarish Reality**

Kelly Severide, while driving to work two days later, thought it odd that the other lieutenant's truck was parked outside a cafe, especially since Casey was generally in work before him as the guy just didn't know when to stop sometimes.

Though he knew that some of it had been his fault over the last few months, they used to hang out quite often together with Andy and...well, that had pretty much stopped and he'd admitted to himself that he'd been an ass to Casey afterwards and even more recently with the whole Heather thing. Over the last couple of days off, Shay had forced him to see the error of his ways and remember that Casey wouldn't actually do all the things that he was having a go at the guy for and had also tried to convince him to call Matt of the last two days to get it all out in the open.

However, he'd put it off, just like the Tara thing and thought it could be dealt with later, like maybe at work when they got there this morning.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a bad feeling crept into his gut as he drove past his friend's truck. What he couldn't see from the angle he was driving which would certainly cause alarms bells to go off was the two days worth of tickets in the windscreen wipers which had built up.

He shrugged off his concern though, maybe Matt had just made it into work a different way because the truck was broken or something like that or he'd gone home with Hallie as apparently she had shown up at Molly's the other day when he'd been called back to the firehouse.

Arriving at the firehouse, Kelly wrapped up against the chill in the air and thought about what today's shift might bring.

Upon entering, he could tell that something was wrong, the atmosphere was far too tense and unsure. He walked into the dining area and when Casey's team saw Severide they asked him a bunch of questions as if it were his fault. The one clear question out of the many being.

"Where is Casey?"

He resented that his actions in the past and recently had meant that Casey's felt the need to come at him like they were and sighed.

"Look guys, I don't know where he is, I've not seen him since the last time we were on shift." He hoped that they would believe the honesty in his tone but he knew it was the truth.

He expected them to look at him like he'd been lying and to his surprise and adding to the feeling that something was really wrong, they looked at him like he'd been their last hope of finding out where their team leader was and it unsettled him deeply to see it.

There was something else going on here and he needed to know what it was. Knowing the question he was about to ask they all spoke in turn of how they had tried to contact Casey and Hermann spoke about a project with the Bar that he'd promised to help with and didn't show up.

Casey always kept his promises.

Bowden walked into the dining area with a serious face, his presence hushing the conversation between the two teams. He took a breath and addressed the room with a heaviness that could be felt by all.

"Voight has escaped." He looked around at the one person that this would affect the most, upon finding him missing and the looks his other men's faces, he feared the answer to the question that needed to be asked.

"What's happened?" His voice low with concern.

With nobody forthcoming with an answer, Severide stepped forward.

"We don't know where Casey is."

The frown on Bowden's face deepened, that wasn't the news he wanted to hear right now.

Severide turned to leave the room, amid calls for his to stop and ask where he was going.

Feeling more and more guilty by the minute that he hadn't checked up on one of his best friends because of his own hot headedness; he was going to Matt's house, hoping that he'd just merely overslept and all this worry was for nothing.

The atmosphere outside of Casey's house didn't match the inner turmoil of the person entering the too quiet house. He still had his spare key from when they had been good friends which was lucky but it only made him feel worse about everything.

Searching the silent house, with two days worth of post behind the door, and not finding his friend sleeping drove up his guilt to epic levels.

Why hadn't he at least called him?

He'd tried on his way over here like the other had this morning and gotten the answer machine straight away as if it had been turned off and Matt what never unreachable, Hallie's number was the same and she hadn't been into work for as long as they were now assuming Matt had been missing.

Which meant they were both missing.

Chicago was a big city to search.

And it killed him that he could have easily come to check up on him even if he had been sleeping and may have noticed sooner that he was missing.

With a heavy heart he called the chief so they could contact the police department to see if they could get things starting on searching for their missing people.

X-Chicago Fire-X

The shock of the reveal froze Casey to the spot; the tendrils of fear digging deeper than he thought possible. This was the man that had tried to get him killed.

One who had connections to people who had hurt and tortured many people. One who had caused him and Hallie to live in fear until he had been put behind bars. He wondered briefly just how he had gotten out.

The taste of his own blood mixed with the musty taste of the rag that was drying his mouth almost caused him to gag, but he knew that he would be a very bad idea at the moment.

With the darkness of the room complete, there was no passage of time, his watch had been taken and there were no windows to speak of so he had no idea of how long he'd already been here, if he was late for work and leaving his team a man down. That did not sit well with Casey, it wasn't that they couldn't do the job without him, it was just that he'd prefer to be there for his team.

And now that Voight seemed to be free he might go after the team simply because of the association between Casey and the firehouse and the friendships he had created. It wasn't like the guy didn't know what was important to Casey after all.

Still trying to comprehend how Voight had managed to get out, his thoughts were cut short when his world was toppled backwards by a strong hand slamming into his chest, causing the chair he was sat on and his head to smash against the unforgiving concrete behind him.

The next few minutes were either a dream or a blur, because he thought he saw Hallie between the waves of light and pain, signalling one hell of a concussion starting up due to the force of the impact with the floor. He would have groaned or breathed deeply to try and settle the pain but the rag forced into his mouth earlier prevented him from doing just that and also effectively cut down the air supply to his body; so breathing was quite difficult at the moment.

He also thought that Hallie was trying to talk to him, however, he couldn't hear her though the ringing in his ears and not knowing if she was really there or not; straining already strained muscles he turned away not wanting her to see him hurt as he knew it had upset her the last time he'd been in hospital, he couldn't stand to see her worried.

Once his head had stopping spinning and the heaving in chest had calmed down, he noticed that the lights had come back on to an almost a migraine inducing level, not that he wasn't working on his own headache though. Looking around through slightly blurred vision he noticed something that didn't bode well for him at all. The rising panic that his mind was succumbing to was being to become a problem in its self, it made him question again what he'd been given. He was used to highly charged situations and managed them without panic, this was different sure but he was sure something else was at work here.

Old blood stained chains were hanging off the cold stone walls, smudges of red haphazardly strew across the grim grey walls almost like clouds against a grim sky. Had he been that pre-occupied that he'd not noticed them? Or had he been moved? But that didn't make sense either. He shook his head in effort to clear the fog in his mind but immediately regretted it when his world spun at an odd angle again.

A hand came out of the confusing swirls his head was making around the room; dragged him and the chair he was sat on bolt upright so fast that his stomach rebelled against him.

His body convulsed in effort not to choke himself by allowing the acidic bile to come up.

The ensuing minutes of confusion a few things happened all at once.

Somebody that disturbingly sounded a lot like Hallie shouted at Voight to stop what he was doing.

Matt's body continued to convulse with the effort; ripping layers of skin from his wrists and ankle, but this time it was to breathe, and couldn't make any sense of what was happening around him; the edges of his vision greying and wavering to black.

The duck tape and rag were roughly ripped from his face but he was already spent of energy and was only clutching on to reality by a thin thread. His coughing effort was nonexistent and his breathing shallow, trying to right the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide but failing.

He could vaguely feel someone shaking at his shoulders, but it didn't really register in his brain before his body decided to shut down for a while to rest and the blackness consumed him.

TBC

So how was that? poor matty is a little confused right now but he will figure out stuff soon...i promise. i also promise some more whump and a great amount of angst :)


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